Movies with similarities to Ghost Rider

[InVictus]

I watched this movie a lot of years ago, and yesterday it came in my mind that actually it has some concepts quite similar to Ghost Rider. Here in Italy it was named "Il replicante" but the original name was "The wraith", with Charlie Sheen as a guy killed and returned years later to exact vengeance (and retrieve his body in a strange system) driving a black "demonic"/extraterrestrial car (wich had a sort of flaming engine under the hood, was indestructible and was able to reach Tron's blur speed ). Some visual scheme and color were quite good and the flick was quite enjoyable for that time.What do you think(if you remember/can view it)?
http://www.sd455.com/moviewraith.htm
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0092240/

 

[Riding Ghost]

Yeah, I've seen it a couple times, it was really cool. I think the last time I saw it was on cable, not too long ago. But it didn't remind me of GR. Still cool though.

 

[BIGGUN]

Yup...The Wraith. saw it in the theaters when it 1st came out. theater only had myself, a friend, and some fat dude who wouldnt stop laughing at anything remotely funny on screen...weird.
movie was bad....as in badly made..heh. i did see some similarities to GR as well....mainly he was a spirit inflicting vengeance on the guilty and used a supernaturally powered vehicle to help acclomplish his goals.

 

[FlameHead]

Yes, The Wraith. I remember that one well... yet I always thought it was one of those movies that you seen but never remember anything about it until someone mentions it 15 or so years later. Like me, right now. I remember it but only because you brought it up. I wouldn't have thought about it if you didn' and now that you did, I can picture the car and even a few scenes I think.

Good call on the similarities too. I see where you come from... and I think I'd like to see the movie again now. Just to regress back to my youth a little, if nothing else. It seems I had a connection with this flick, now that I'm thinking about it.

 

[FlameHead]

So, I was doin' some searching for Ghost Rider news and found the following article. Notice the section in bold.

BONE HILL/THE WHISPER KING/MACABRE/PLAY DEAD

The Hollywood Reporter also notes that Platinum Studios has acquired rights to the next four graphic novels by horror writer Wil Radcliffe to develop as live-action features. The four properties are "Bone Hill," a thriller about a psychiatrist trying to save a young female patient whose psychoses might hold the key to ending an ancient evil; "The Whisper King," about a man who must protect a group of kids from the monsters who abducted him as a child; "Macabre," a teen supernatural horror story about a young man possessed by a vengeful spirit; and "Play Dead," in which a family is haunted by the malevolent spirit of their beloved household pet.

I know there are a lot of possibilites with a plotline like that but is it too close to what we know and love as Ghost Rider? Do you think these people are jumping on the Ghost Rider (or horror in general) ban wagon... or is it all a coincedince?

Regardless of the firey head or not, the storyline will no doubt be similar. How do you guys feel about this news?

 

[InVictus]

Macabre is actually quite different if i remember correctly.. it is more like Hellboy/hellblazer i think, yet i have to check it.
If you fear a clone of Ghost Rider, that is Spawn.

 

[FlameHead]

LOL. True enough.

I'm interested to hear more though... just to see.

 

[InVictus]

Here is what i though "macabre" was referring to:
http://it.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=fp-tab-web-t-1&ei=ISO-8859-1&p=Wil+Radcliffe+macabre&meta=vl=
but i misunderstood ^^;
I've never heard of Will Radcliffe, maybe the story could end up similar to that SkullFire half boy half demon in one Hellstrom mini.

 

[FlameHead]

Because of only having a couple of Hellstrom related comics (It's second or third tier in my midnight sons/Occult comic collection) I'm not sure who your referring too. Was his name SkullFire or was that description of him?

I'm not sure who Radcliff is either...

 

[InVictus]

It was a somewhat "recent" Hellstrom mini based end of the group, Gargoyle was Hellstrom buckler, HellCat had married Hellstrom and was driven crazy, very adult theme too.SkullFire was a boy turned in a demon because of satan crazy life/chess game prepared for HS, started by a minor daemon while master was away. o_o
It was somewhat funny also see this giant blue demon with the skull on fire and bandages cry out for mummy or say "i am a suppa hero!Cool!"
Nevermind, my memories can be quite strange

 

[FlameHead]

As can mine, my friend, as can mine.

Thanks for the information. I'll definatly be picking those issues up at sometime. The Hellstrom character definatly fits into my realm of collecting... as will SkullFire, though I doubt that character had many appearances.

 

[InVictus]

Err, my memory somethimes build up truly amazing things!
It wasn's SkullFire, it was SOUL fire ^_^;
Here it is all visual/BG of this Ghost Rider ripoff
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/soulfr.htm

Seriously, Marvel Demons can be quite imaginative?

 

[FlameHead]

Holy ripoff Batman. There is no way in Marvel hell that he was not 'inspired' by our beloved Ghost Rider. I do love the way he looks though, even if his head is exactly the same as the well known hothead.

Thanks for the pic!

 

[InVictus]

He lacks jaw, actually, and has longer canine tooths, spikes are different(except on backhand^^; ) and the flame/eyes color are different, so he is truuuly not a ripoff right?
But the artist is indeed quite good, that's one good skull drawer(err not forniture, artist who draw...ouch>_<).

 

[FlameHead]

Was this before or after Vengeance?

 

[InVictus]

It was after Vendetta, if i remember correctly.

 

[FlameHead]

I'm not sure what you're refering to by Vendetta...

This is a neat pic of Soulfire too...

 

[InVictus]

D'oh i did it again! I was actually checking the news on the V for Vendetta movie and since Vengeance =Vendetta in italian....

 

[FlameHead]

LOL, no worries. Easy mistake to make...

 

[WilRadcliffe]

Hi, guys. Hope you don't mind if I come in to clear up a few things. Since I'm the writer of the Macabre graphic novel, I can assure you that it is nothing like Ghost Rider. Without giving away too much, I will tell you that it has nothing to do with demon possession or a Spirit of Vengeance. There is a definite supernatural element, but it's more along the lines of "A Nightmare on Elm Street," or "Friday the 13th." No flaming skulls or hellfire or motorcycles.

I hope you'll give the book a chance. And thanks for hearing me out.

Cheers!

Wil

 

[SuperFerret]

"Play Dead" sounds like Pet Sematary to me.

 

[WilRadcliffe]

Well, you have to keep in mind that these quick descriptions of the projects don't relate the details. "Play Dead" doesn't feature an Indian burial ground, and it centers more on the ghost of a single pet, rather than various pets and people coming back as zombies. So, there are a lot of differences, really. But I can understand how based on the initial description you might feel that the two projects are similar.

 

[FlameHead]

Mind? Not at all. It's very good to see you and welcome to the hype. We always like new visitors and I'll definatly give things a chance. Though I jump to conclusions often, I still tend to give things a chance.

Nice of you to drop by and give us more information regarding your graphic novel. I can assure you that you only reason I jumped to such a conclusion as I did is because I am such a huge Ghost Rider fan. There are millions of different ways you can go with a possessing of a vengeful spirit. Plus, the image is most of whats cool about Ghost Rider... and I like you say, no flaming skulls...

I guess the report mean't 'vengeful spirit' to mean a much different thing. The vengeance probably doesn't involve severe pain... and spirit didn't actually mean 'spirit' as in the soul of another persons exisitance. I get it now.

I'm Ghost Rider crazy...

 

[InVictus]

Thanks for the informations, i will surely give a look to you work.
Hmm is it then similar to the Grudge/The Ring type of horror or more of the "old school" '80 atmosphere?
Yet thoose news were surely misleading >_<
And, yes, we are so crazy about GR that by the coming out of the movie our heads will self combust...D

 

[WilRadcliffe]

Flamehead and Invictus: I understand about being Ghost Rider fans. He's a very cool character. Which version are you partial too? The original Johnny Blaze or the Spirit of Vengeance. It's hard for me to choose, personally. Blaze was the first one I read as a kid, but the SOV version was a very cool reworking of the character with an awesome backstory. Anyway, I hope they do right by the character in the movie.

As for Macabre, it will have a bit of an 80s vibe to it probably. But there will also be a lot of suspense and probably more character development than what you'd get from an 80s slasher flick. At least that's the way I'm writing the comic. How they do the movie is out of my hands.

Thanks for the welcome, guys! Feel free to stop by my web site (www.nogglestones.com) to check out some of my other projects!

Cheers!
Wil